Hide + new mechanic "Track"

It seems odd to me that a game that bashes you in the face with it's realism has a "hide" function that essentially allows you to turn invisible (depending on skill). The game has built in world objects for players to use to "hide" no tab targeting and a very small targeting range in general. An invisibility seems out of place

Suggested change to Hide is as follows. Leave hide in the game but allow hide to determine your ability to be tracked.

A brief description of balancing. At lower levels of hide vs track hide should always win out as both skills become higher track should begin to even out possibly allowing a track player to win out vs hide at top levels.
Hide should no longer slow your movement but should drain energy faster (amount drained based on skill level?)

NEW ABILITY: Track
Track would be implemented in conjunction with the new hide mechanics. Track would not be totally reliant on player tracking. The primary function of track should be to assist hunters in tracking animals. With the purposed implication of zone control and pvp encounters.
This skill should be difficult to level, should require the player to stoop kneel down and have a moderate casting bar. IMO this skill would work best with a flat skill mod determining what the person is able to track Example 0-5 raccoon 5-15 coyotes etc... . With skill level having only an effect on things the player is capable of tracking and energy used. The size of track should remain unchanged since adding some area control and ability for hunters to find their prey is the goal and not to give the members of a hunting party the ability to track and grief large areas.

It seems Hunting lacks the actions to make it more useful, seeing as the hunters dont actually hunt anything, but bump upon animals like everyone else.

A visual aid in the form of a text would be interesting. Something that would look like "You see a footprint of a medium sized animal heading North/Northeast" up to high level skills like "You see the footprint of a group of 3 coyotes heading South".

I agree it should be an action with a bar and an energy cost but it would make possible for players to actually "Hunt" for the animals instead of waiting for them.

Regarding the "hide" I dont see much value in it right now. I can hide by pressing b on high grass...makes for a better effect...at least against the players. A prone/crawling toggle would be also welcome. I find the hide vs track idea very interesting has in the future I would hope to see some sort of Bouty Hunting system so we can tack down the nasty people out there.

I've never been a fan of hitting a button and POOF nobody can see you. I like having the motivation to crouch/prone, use logistics, and use player created gear to really create a "hidden" endeavor, such as ambush. Doesnt seem logical that an entire raiding party could hit the "hide" button and be completely invisible. Does seem logical that they could all be crawling through high grass and not be seen. Merely balance issues IMO.

MAJOR plus to a "tracking" skill. Could let it search for animals and humans. Some games ive seen simply give you a circle radius around the player, bring up a list of people's names, click to track (depend on skill level, distance, etc skill checks) then give a basic arrow pointing to location. Works very well for gameplay, is easy to understand, adds depth to game. Could also add the ability to distinguish between male/female animals - so player could choose to kill/not kill the last 2 deer (male and female) of a spawned herd as to not destroy it forever, then return at later date to farm.

Tribe gets the "your land is being encroached upon" alert, someone can track - oh nevermind thats our friendly neighbors, or omg those bastards are going for our junkpile agains!!! Get an arrow!

Agree with the OP. Hide as it is feels out of place in a game that stresses realism, and a track mechanic makes so much sense considering the era and necessity of tracking game. I like the text pop up version, as opposed the the EQ version that just lets you see everything around you and points with a big arrow.

Possible modifiers to your ability to be tracked is how fast you were moving, overall weight (Body weight + encumbrance), type of footwear (barefoot and moccasins probably leave less distinctive tracks than a pair of Nikes or plate boots), terrain (tracking across rock is nigh impossible, soft ground easy), and weather (tracks obscured by rain, new snowfall).

Creating actions like going prone, leaning (to look out around trees) and equivalents to ghillie suits, along with replacing Hide with Stealth (harder to track, move quietly, unlock additional stealthy actions), would add significantly more realism and more depth to hunting/scouting/stealthing than the current hide mechanic.

Something that goes along this line, but what if Perception improved your max visual range/targeting range/targeting hitbox of opponents? That would make it very useful, and I think a literal interpretation of perception.

Agree with the OP. Hide as it is feels out of place in a game that stresses realism, and a track mechanic makes so much sense considering the era and necessity of tracking game. I like the text pop up version, as opposed the the EQ version that just lets you see everything around you and points with a big arrow.

Possible modifiers to your ability to be tracked is how fast you were moving, overall weight (Body weight + encumbrance), type of footwear (barefoot and moccasins probably leave less distinctive tracks than a pair of Nikes or plate boots), terrain (tracking across rock is nigh impossible, soft ground easy), and weather (tracks obscured by rain, new snowfall).

Creating actions like going prone, leaning (to look out around trees) and equivalents to ghillie suits, along with replacing Hide with Stealth (harder to track, move quietly, unlock additional stealthy actions), would add significantly more realism and more depth to hunting/scouting/stealthing than the current hide mechanic.

Something that goes along this line, but what if Perception improved your max visual range/targeting range/targeting hitbox of opponents? That would make it very useful, and I think a literal interpretation of perception.

I agree with all of this. I think it would add another layer of game play, one of stealth and spying.